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Recent Condo open house in downtown San Diego. Is the real estate cycle going downhill from here? Much-recommended economics blog here. And next time some Bushist apologist wanker starts talking about national-debts-relative-to-GDP, smack 'em with this. previously [1], [2] on Mefi.
comment posted at 9:25 PM on Apr-4-06
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Apr-4-06

The no-757 crowd is making an ass out of itself. Images showing left wing impact damage, the extent of the damage that was done, debris comparisons as well as illustrations showing the plane's projected path (yellow numbers are knocked-down lamp posts) and the point of impact does an excellent job of debunking the Pentagon missile theory. Add a slew of accounts from eye-witnesses claiming to have seen an American Airlines plane, and the theory's on rather shaky ground. Complimentary reading: Loose Change: An Analysis and It was Flight 77. I urge you all to read at least the first article before commenting.
comment posted at 12:54 AM on Apr-4-06

I've become obsessed with the idea of the Real Estate Bubble. I don't even live in NYC or SF, but I must read Brownstoner, Curbed, and Curbed SF every day. For more local, but less spectacular, chills I read Urban Trekker. And for a more global view of the gloom: The Matrix, The Housing Bubble, and Bubble Meter. Finally, for one last depressing shot, America's Overvalued Real Estate tracks down the most depressingly overpriced "pieces of shit" across the country. Related discussions here, here, here, and (premature or prescient?) here.
comment posted at 6:32 PM on Apr-3-06

Meet the new New York Times. After five years, the most popular newspaper on the web has gotten a facelift. Joining a recent web design trend towards optimizing for wider screens, they've gone for no fewer than six columns on the front page. And while I wouldn't look for a wiki any time soon, they seem to be giving a nod to the web 2.0 crowd with javascipty scrollable image bars and prominent links to recent video (hello, YouTube) and current rankings of their most popular, most emailed and most blogged articles (hello, Technorati). The new Times Topics aggregate articles (and multimedia) from across the site, along with background info (hello, Wikipedia). All the more impressive, considering the head of their design team (who also redid The Onion!) was hired just three months ago. Of course, Mickey Kaus will still see this as proof that Sulzburger should be fired.
comment posted at 5:35 PM on Apr-3-06
comment posted at 3:45 PM on Apr-5-06

my cock won't fit NR!
comment posted at 6:48 PM on Mar-31-06

When you just can't get enough... Comes the iGoatse, protect your iPod with the one thing that might actually keep people from stealing your iPod. [via Gizmodo]
comment posted at 5:16 PM on Mar-30-06
comment posted at 5:17 PM on Mar-30-06
comment posted at 8:08 PM on Mar-30-06

Hard to See Uluru (formerly Ayers' Rock) the "red center of Australia" isn't just as tall as an 85 story building, it's surrounded by hundreds of square miles of nothing. Uluru - It's not just big, it's [insert your tagline here].
comment posted at 4:24 PM on Mar-30-06

Safely install software in a virtual layer. Sick of buggy or beta software screwing with your Windows install? Altiris SVS provides a free and nifty alternative to the software diet by letting you install software into protected layers which can be removed or restored with a single click. (It's like a thinly-sliced version of VMware.) Altiris's Juice site lists lots of interesting tricks such as easily rolling back software patches. Pre-layered software installs available here.
comment posted at 4:08 PM on Mar-30-06

The Typing of the Dead was a much loved game for the Dreamcast and PC. The out of print PC game was once available at the venerable Home of the Underdogs, but their site is borked after their domain expired, due to their insanely restrictive .htaccess referer blocking.

Alas! Have no fear: Some kind soul upped it to the Pirate Bay, where I'm currently seeding it.
comment posted at 4:15 PM on Mar-30-06

Farang men and Thai bar girls:
Some farangs quickly lose the plot; some know how to treat a bar girl; some run complicated "free sex" scams; some are exploitative creeps.
Bar girls can be sticky; some like to collect sponsors.
Is true love possible? The odds are against it.
comment posted at 5:30 PM on Mar-29-06

Rule 13: Starting a betting pool on the fate of this year's Defence Against Dark Arts teacher is tasteless and tacky, not a clever money-making concept.
comment posted at 4:48 PM on Mar-29-06

the perfect penis? (very NSFW) guy injects silicon into his groin for several years and ... well...
comment posted at 2:36 AM on Mar-31-06

Nice Bill Hicks video on google video. It's nice to hear such warm, life-affirming humor with all the cynicism these days.
comment posted at 5:28 PM on Mar-29-06
comment posted at 9:09 PM on Mar-29-06
comment posted at 7:11 PM on Apr-1-06

He's a Gruppie, she's a Gruppie... Wouldn't you like to be a Gruppie too?
comment posted at 10:59 PM on Mar-28-06
comment posted at 5:44 PM on Mar-29-06

My Dinner With Jack. "Three years ago, I had dinner with now the now infamous lobbyist Jack Abramoff (really). I sat down at his now infamous restaurant Signatures, he told me and amazing and wildly improbable story about how he made Red Scorpion and I never heard from him again." [via mefi projects]
comment posted at 4:39 PM on Mar-28-06
comment posted at 5:38 PM on Mar-28-06

"...the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is..." "Yes? Yes!?" "...42."
via Dyson, Montgomery, Princeton, a cup of tea - as presented by Seed Magazine.
comment posted at 4:21 PM on Mar-28-06

Does copyright extend to the bit encoding sequences used in P2P applications? A case is made for the myriad paths bit encoding can take in the formation of MP3 files, the argument being therefore that said bit encoding sequences used in the formation of MP3 files are exempt from copyright law. Furthermore an application is offered to demonstrate the point. But isn't bit encoding just another 'language' like French, German, Spanish and therefore a copyrightable adjunct to the authors/copyright owners work? (Even if there are myriad dialects.)
comment posted at 9:40 PM on Mar-27-06
comment posted at 9:42 PM on Mar-27-06
comment posted at 10:54 PM on Mar-27-06

I'm positive one of you people did this. Predated by Cory sucking and as foretold by prophecy.
comment posted at 10:00 PM on Mar-27-06

Tim Heidecker Gets stabbed (he's ok) Tim Heidecker, of TimandEric.com, co-creator of Tom Goes to the Mayor, (Adult Swim) and pal of Bob Odenkirk was stabbed by a kid on PCP last week. He wrote about the experience and included some neat photos on his blog. I couldn't find the police blotter.
comment posted at 11:00 PM on Mar-27-06

"Marriage is for white people."
comment posted at 1:06 AM on Mar-27-06

New York Times to release Bush/Blair memo tomorrow. The memo, which was mentioned previously, but never publically disclosed, confirms that George W. Bush and Tony Blair were determined to invade Iraq, regardless of UN approval, and despite what both leaders told their citizens. More troubling, the memo also indicates that Bush may have conspired to assassinate Saddam Hussein, which appears to violate Sec. 5g of Executive Order 11905, which states that "No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination." This executive order was considered the law of the land even after 9/11, when Bob Barr proposed legislation H.R. 19, which was never enacted into law.
comment posted at 11:38 PM on Mar-26-06
comment posted at 6:22 PM on Mar-27-06

The 15 Best Skylines.
comment posted at 9:28 PM on Mar-26-06

A conversation about the future is a 1 hr. 15 min. Time magazine podcast (mp3 file) of a panel discussion, featuring Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban, LA Times op-ed editor Andres Martinez, author Steven Johnson ("Everything Bad Is Good for You") and magazine writer Caitlin Flanagan.
comment posted at 1:04 AM on Mar-24-06

Did Isaac Hayes really quit South Park? Last night's show roasted Hayes for his irate departure following the now-infamous Scientology episode (banned from the air in Tom Cruise's litigious wake, full episode here). In the latest episode, masters of subtlety Trey Parker and Matt Stone depict Chef as having fallen prey to an insidious cult, the "Super Adventure Club", subsequently killing him off in a manner that would make Kenny jealous. But today FoxNews reports that Isaac Hayes has been in the hospital since Jan. 17th, following a stroke, and never issued a statement. Apparently, the Scientology Center issued it "for" him. [via] [previously discussed here here and here]
comment posted at 5:16 PM on Mar-23-06
comment posted at 6:25 PM on Mar-23-06

So we're at this bar and I'm like, Jessica, your uptalk is totally annoying?, and she goes, actually Stephanie, it's called HRT? and I'm like, whatever, I heard it'll destroy your career? and she's all, no way, even the President does it now? so I go, just forget it ok? and order another Stooooohhhleee owwrindge and taaaahnick.
comment posted at 6:23 PM on Mar-23-06
comment posted at 5:47 PM on Mar-28-06

Google has quietly improved their stock info page. I'm not a huge fan of posting every new Google feature, but this is by far the best UI for stock price tracking, history, etc I've seen. Think google-maps-good. Until recently they were just linking to a Yahoo! Finance version.
comment posted at 6:14 PM on Mar-22-06
comment posted at 6:16 PM on Mar-22-06
comment posted at 8:19 PM on Mar-22-06

A recent poll ranks atheists as America's most distrusted minority. Despite some inroads into American's acceptance of religious diversity, distrust of the godless appears to have held steady. Should atheists evangelize, or perhaps follow in the footsteps of certain Christian fundamentalists and seek an Atheist Homeland? The sticks and stones seem endless, after all. via
comment posted at 5:03 PM on Mar-22-06

Not only is Starforce an evil driver-based copy-protection system that will spontaneously reboot your machine without warning if it thinks its being circumvented, not only is it on surprisingly many PC software products including a few you just might own, not only does it not remove itself when the game that installed it is uninstalled, but now they're claiming that the complaints about their software ultimately come from the Russian Mafia, and are asking authorities in the U.S. and Russia about looking into them.... (Previous Starforce idiocy on MeFi.)
comment posted at 10:29 PM on Mar-21-06

President Bush on the state of the US Economy, including a discussion of the national debt and rising global interest rates, from today's news conference.
comment posted at 10:48 PM on Mar-21-06

Star Wars in 2008? Rick Mccallum, producer of all six Star Wars movies and the franchise's only tv series to date, has told BBC Radio that he and George Lucas are set to do a Luke Skywalker tv series which should debut in 2008. Supposedly there will be at least 100 episodes covering the first 20 years of the young Jedi's life. It's not the first time there's been talk of taking Star Wars to tv.
comment posted at 6:41 PM on Mar-21-06

Democratic presidential candidate rails against US imperialism. "The platform . . . condemns the experiment in imperialism as an inexcusable blunder, which has involved us in enormous expense, brought us weakness instead of strength, and laid our nation open to the charge of abandoning the fundamental principles of a republic."
A prominent American author who initially supported the conflict, changed his mind, calling it "a mess, a quagmire from which each fresh step renders the difficulty of extrication immensely greater.” The US is “the kind of World Power . . . that a prairie-dog village is . . . it is the duty of our Government to stand sentinel, with solemn mien, and lifted nose, and curved paws, on top of our little World-Power mound.”
comment posted at 10:55 PM on Mar-20-06

From on the ground in Iraq, with death squads on the prowl in a nation paralysed by fear, with each mile, the divisions deepen. Some suggest Iraq is about to look a lot like Lebanon. Others think we should be so lucky, that what looms is much worse than mere civil war: an archipegalo of complete and total anarchy, the war of all against all.

As the saying goes, even a blind squirrel may find an acorn now and then, especially one planetary in size--like here: predictions of a better Middle East have evaporated.
comment posted at 4:43 PM on Mar-20-06
comment posted at 9:52 PM on Mar-20-06

"Don't worry Mr. President, we have Kansas surrounded." Warrantless searches: they're not just for wiretaps anymore. U.S. News and World Report probes the Bush administration's covert drive to conduct physical searches of American homes without court approval.
comment posted at 11:58 PM on Mar-19-06

Elizabeth Báthory is hot. I'd do her. The thing is she holds the world record (according to GWR) for being the most prolific serial killer in history. Supposedly, she may have tortured and killed as many as 2000 young girls, which probably makes her bi or lesbian (not that there's anything wrong with that). Some say she is the real inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula.
comment posted at 7:18 PM on Mar-18-06